Dear people who still use myspace,

We seem to be few and far between these days. I still check this thing on the regular but most of the time there's usually nothing happening. Everybody jumped ship to facespace ages ago, which I dig, but it seems more creepy. Anyway, for those of you still here- good stuff.

I want to invest in some music recording gear. In particular the following items; microphone, pre-amp, monitors. Any gear heads out there with recommendations? Budget is reasonable. Not massive, not tiny. I don't wanna buy shit stuff. I wanna buy good stuff without bankrupting myself. In particular, anyone know the best brands for monitors?

What else?

I saw New Moon last night and switched to Team Jacob. Loser. Me, not Jacob. I kept cracking up at inappropriate moments and Anika and Kara were getting annoyed with me but I couldn't help it. It was too hilarious.

Just in case anybody still cares about my garden (probably not) it's going good thanks. I have a feeling that this summer is going to be my best garden yet. Just dug some seaweed into it.

In two weeks we're doing the Fly My Pretties encore shows. It should be pretty premium. Adi Dick is coming back to do a couple of his songs and everybody is touting that as a highlight. We all know what the real highlight is gonna be though. (And then you go- "yeah it'll be you" and I go "nah whatever" and you go "yes" and I go "oh yeah probly" but I'm just joking).

Gotta go hang out my laundry. Sunny as.

Dear the internet,

It's August 7. It's pretty cold. I've been coughing like my body wants to expel my lungs for nearly 3 months (not continuously, mind, just every 10-30 mins). Thought I might have had TB, which was a crack up to me for some reason! TB is probably not supposed to be funny. Anyway the anitbiotics are fixing that now. And for all you hippies out there- I'm secretly a hippy too and was very anti the antibiotics but desperate times etc. So  don't judge me!

I've started getting my head around releasing another plastic disc with music on it. I'm really excited about the first half, which is already underway really. Got a good whack of the songs written. Been playing loud guitars and drums and quiet guitars and singing and hollering and then hollering at Ned to hurry up and play some more guitars and pressing record/stop/undo/record/stop/undo/record/save (I get bored after 3 trys then settle- they're only demos). I'm excited about doing it all again in the proper style too.

The second half is a bridge I will cross when I come to it. The bridge of "everybody look at me and my plastic disc and buy yourselves a copy!!!!". Although it can be fun too actually, especially when it involves playing some music gigs. Suffice to say- my lifestyle is pretty premium on the whole and far be it from me to complain.

Here is an exciting thing- I'm performing with Eru Dangerpiel tomorrow night (Saturday) at the Auckland Town Hall. It's going to be a pretty superdelic live gig holy shit. We had a rehearsal last night. Even when I'm just banging a cowbell it's the funnest thing ever. I bang that cowbell like my life depends on it.

Here is another exciting thing- I'm going to the UK and the Europe on Monday. It's not a tour it's a holiday but I will play at least one gig while I'm there and maybe one or two more. I'm going to visit my sister Claire (she's a doctor- pretty flash isn't it?) and my friend Aidee (she's an actor- pretty creative isn't it?) and some other people.

Anyway, I have to go and get my mantoux test read now (fingers crossed!). Thanks for being an outlet for my brain which always wakes up full, even if you don't really care about my feelings (you are just the internet so how can you? It's ok I'm not mad I'm just saying...).

Yours in cyber-friendship

Anna

Hi,

It's pretty much winter and we are all coming to terms with this I know. Probably a few people are really relishing this awful cold, but they are sick and twisted and their opinions do not matter to me. No offence.

There are some positives though so take heart! Here are some (you can probably think of more)....

- It is now appropriate to wear your mother's cast off size L, beige coloured, wooly sweater from Farmers (or, as my Mum likes to call it, "The Farmers").

- It is also now acceptable to leave the spare sleeping bag sitting on the couch, and sit 'neath it whenever you want.

- You can more often tell yourself "Oh it's raining. I can't go for a run then."

- Being a boring stay-at-home person is more excusable (though this is also in part due to "the recession". I've been pinning a lot of things on "the recession")

- Soup and other hot food

- There are trees all around laden with fruit, aka, free food! I went for a walk through the park yesterday and there were feijoas everywhere. Wonderful. There are also persimmons OR mandarins (haven't had a close enough look yet) on my street. They are also free for the taking. Thank you nature.

If, like me, you find yourself burdened/blessed with more feijoas than you can consume as straight up and down feijoas, may I suggest...
- preserving them and then freezing them (make sure you freeze them because I didn't and they got all pink and gross so I threw them out what a waste)
- feijoa crumble
- feijoa spice cake! I have a recipe but I fear that making it public here will upset my friend Emma who gave me the recipe. It's hard to tell what recipes are secret these days. (though if you really want to know, let me know, and I'll see what I can do)

ALSO- looking forward to being part of Fly My Pretties.

ALSO- working on some new songs and trying my upmost to make them premium.

ALSO- going to the UK/Europe in August. Anybody in those parts keen to make friends- let's make friends!

-end-

The T-Shirt video is finally finished and it's great! Have a watch on my space or my face or the youtube or you may even see it on your television! It is much more likely that you'll see it on your television if you request it from C4 or something like that. Yes. Go on. And if you find yourself sitting round thinking "jeez I wish I could hear a song that would remind me of awkward party situations", request it from your local radio station! Why not!?

Enjoy!

I need to make another music video. I hate making music videos. I know nothing about the video/film format. I can't seem to control how long it takes or what it looks like. Thankfully I have thus far had good results from the excellent people who made them for me (laboured over them, slaved over them long after the pitiful budget was gone- though may I mention here that the budget for this video will be adequate, maybe more than adequate depending on what you're used to and what your idea is and other factors), but every time I have to do it again I have no idea where to start. Who to call. How to express the great idea I had without it sounding like it won't be great at all, will actually be quite shit when caught on camera. How to press the importance of it being delivered in a timely fashion without sounding like an asshole business guy. Someone must know. One of you must know who I should call. Maybe you are the person! Maybe you have a great idea! Maybe you have a friend of a friend who made a music video once for their other friend who you don't actually know but they did it for $200 and it wasn't too bad, actually!

If so, please share. Maybe nothing will come of this. Maybe no one even looks at myspace bulletins anymore. Maybe this "bulletin" would be better off as a "blog", style-wise I mean. I think I'll copy and paste it into a blog also. Yes. I will. If you have a good idea for a video for a song called "Never Change" about emotioinal/mental instability due to peer-influenced self-oppression and probably other things as well (whatever you want!), send a message. Why not! Who cares man? Be free! Your idea is probably really good, even if it doesn't get used. I bet it's better than my ones! I am not a film-type. I am not an actor (I really, really am not). I need you. Not in a desperate, needy way but in a "you potentially have a quality that I lack" way.

Let's see how it goes anyway. Cast the net wide and all that.

Dear Blogary,

I'll try to be brief but it's been a good summer so it's hard to pick out the best bits. Maybe it calls for bullet points....

- Rhythm and Vines was awesome. Played a great set then over the next 3 days saw Santogold (awesome), Ladyhawke (awesome), Public Enemy (awesome) and heaps of other cool shit (Phoenix Foundation, SJD, loads and loads and loads). Also hung out at the beach playing petanque (spelling?) and by new year's eve was so partied out we couldn't bring ourselves to go back to the festival (really it was just no one wanted to drive) so we got pissed at our rental house listening to Justin's top 100 of 2008 on his pod. I practised the top rocking that Bonnie taught me, which I can only do if I'm really drunk and Ned busted out a full windmill and caterpillar combo that raised more than a few eyebrows (in a "impressive" way, not a "whatever" way).

- BDO was pretty much Neil Young for me and not much else. Wasn't feeling the thousands and thousands of people vibe (I had my reasons, man) but jeepers he was worth the wait. I heartily heart you Neil Young.

- The T-shirt Tour is underway and going very nicely thank you. We've (that's me and guitar guy Ned) played great gigs in Raglan, Waiheke, Whangarei and Baylys Beach and look forward to Wellingotn, Taupo and Flaxmill Bay this week. Also really looking forward to Leigh Sawmill with the Sami Sisters AND my band Sexy Time aka The Pies aka The Coddingtones.

- My garden is farkin gaan orf! I got cherry tomatoes strung up to the trees! Beans, yellow zucchinis and scallopinis the size of a small person's head (which, by the way, I don't really know what to do with so any suggestions....). I also got a rogue pumpkin guy that I didn't plant. Interesting.

- I recently finished reading Life of Pi. After many glowing reports I was disappointed to find I couldn't get into it but after halfway it got better and now a week after having finished it I think it's great, just like everyone said it was. It's not the best book I ever read but I like how me and my manager Michael disagree about what really happened. I think it was all animals. Any other good books? I'm 2 sentences in to One Hundred Years of Solitude.

- My sister was around this summer. Jeez it was choice. She's gone back to the UK now. Stink. But I wanna try visit her this year. Choice.

I did a gig in the Coromandel on Sunday night at a place called Eggsentric in Flaxmill bay just across the ditch from Whitianga. It was awesome! Those people are crazy cool man. I heart labour weekend and also the beach. It felt like actual summer just for that one day (now I'm back in Auckland and the weather's all moody like it wants to have a cry) and I had a swim at Cathedral Cove, which was fuckin freeeeeezing but real nice. Then I went to the Pukeko express up the top of the track and bought a lemonade popsicle, which turned out to be a Pam's iceblock, which tasted like stick (the whole iceblock tasted like iceblock stick), but the lady there seemed nice enough but not too happy about life in that little cart, so I didn't say anything.

But I had the most fun I've had in ages playing that gig and that's a good thing. Now I want to play more and more and more. Good.

Good.

(sorry to always talk about myself)

Life has been pretty awesome for the last few months. It's been pretty hard out but it's been pretty awesome. I've done more shows in the last few months than probably the two years before them. I did my album release tour in June then Anika Moa's tour in July/Aug. Good times followed by good times. We just finished with a bang on Sunday night. Personally, the bang was a bit too much for me and I spent Monday alternating sleep with spew. So unlike me. No, it is. It is. So now it's Wednesday and... now what? That's always what people seem to think when they finish a tour. I know what I want to do (another tour, another album, another fun thing). But it's the steps towards making it happen that always seem big when you've just finished a big thing. Or maybe that's just me. Who knows...

Highlights of the last few months:::::

- I touched a real life elephant. It made me feel so happy I felt a bit dizzy.
- I fed Lemurs. They held my hand with their little hands while they ate bits of banana.
- I touched a tuatara. It was soft and cold and kind of smooth. Not what you expect.
Those ones all happened in the one day. At the zoo. Other, non-zoo highlights::::
- The Dark Night. I love the movies.
- My friend Gayle came for dinner last night. I made Gado gado.
- A few hours of sunshine every day for the last few days.

I also shot a video clip for T-Shirt. My friend Ian Hart is making it and it's going to be great. I feel it in my bones. Mostly because everything else he's done has been great. Lucky me. I would tell you more about it but a) I don't really know anything more about it and b) I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. But I hear they have dabbling with that song in the ivory radio towers. For little, independent, old me this is very good news so if you happen to hear it on one of your stations ring them or email them and say "Bloody good on you Mr Radio! (they are nearly always men) It's a bloody good one!".

What else?

Getting excited about summer. Hope to be playing a lot. Hope hope hope.

Olympics. Hmmmm. Mixed emotions. China, Tibet, The Environment, our nation's OTT obsession with sports (no offence! Just saying), all the heavy stuff. But those gymnasts man! They are crazy! And that tall fulla who was specially bred for the Chinese basketball team! Out there. It's like a mega-circus. Even with smoke and mirrors like fake firework footprints (FFF) and the girl who mimed the song and that. The other girl looked fine to me. Anyway, I digress....

So. What else?

I did something that could be good or bad but I feel like I should confess it. I bought an ipod. The discman I had was no good for exercise (skipped) and I really want to get in shape and the only way I can start out is with music in my ears. But I still have the same problem which is that I'm too indecisive to listen to something without somewhere thinking "I wonder what else there is that I want to listen to?". So I stand by a lot of what I said. But I guess I also stand corrected. Shame on my brain or whatever. It's fuckin awesome and I listened to the Pixies and Fugazi and Amp Fiddler and that song that goes "I'm lost without you, can't help myself, how does it feel...." and Boogie Down Productions and Elliot Smith and other stuff and it made those long drives that much more bearable. I don't have to justify myself to you! Ha ha ha....

Final thought:::::It seems like everyone has abandoned myspace for facebook. I'm still loyal, man. I'm totally addicted to scramble but that's it I swear. It's only scramble. But I'm kinda into it anyway. Now it feels like myspace is the quiet study area. No people trying to facechat you all the time. Or poke you (what is that anyway?). But anyway- the main thing is holding on to the belief that real life is better than cyberlife. I still believe that.

Etc etc.

Hi.

I drove home from the Chateau Tongariro yesterday via my cousin's place in Turangi where my Aunty had made a big pot of delicious vegetable soup. It was exactly what I needed after being up there in all that snow. I hadn't seen the snow since I was a little kid and was totally under-prepared for it so I had to steal my manager's woolly socks because mine got wet through my sneakers (yes, I wore sneakers in the snow and I'm dumb. Yes) and my feet were so cold they hurt and I had to take my shoes and socks off at sound check and stand with my feet inside my my massive jacket that's like a sleeping bag with sleeves. It was choice up there though. Very pretty and kind of scary like the shining. Didn't get any visitors in the night though.

So my tour was good, all in all. Several lessons learned but way more good times had. Thanks to everyone who came out to the gigs. We really, really appreciate that because it was my first tour of my own and you just never know what's gonna happen or who's gonna bother coming out of their house to see you play some songs that you wrote. So choice. Thanks.

The dates for Anika's tour on which I will be playing support and singing with her are up on my 'space' and my website so come on out mo fo's.

Getting hungry now so I gotta go. Buy my album already! Jeez...

Arohanui,

Anna C

Happy birthday to me!

Just got back from the South Island leg of the tour. Fuckin choice buzz down there. We played Oamaru, Wanaka, Lyttleton and Christchurch and they were all cool. Thanks to everyone who showed up to the shows. Good audiences down there. You fullas are choice.

We were cruising luxury style in a massive camper courtesy of Jucy rentals. Sooooo awesome. That drive from Wanaka to Christchurch is long man but we made up the double bed in the back and took turns crashing out and driving. Easy.

We had a great show at the Wunderbar in Lyttleton. Afterwards we went down the road to our mate Aaron's studio for a jams and a drink. That fulla can really rock a party on the guitar. He's out of control good. Riki and Chip and Ned as well. It was weird how the more toasted they got the better the jams were. Or maybe it was the more toasted I got the better it all seemed. I had a bang on the drums too and a bit of a hack on the guitar. It was the best party ever.

After the show at the Dux de Lux (where, BTW, we had an awesome feed and watched the rugby and lucky we won otherwise Chip would have fallen into a deep depression. I don't know shit about rugby but just looking at the players in that weird bit at the start where they give you the specs on them all I suspected the All Blacks would win because they just looked fitter than the English team who seemed slightly fatter and not as healthy) we went to Anika's Mum's 50th where there was another jam set up so everyone tore it up again. And Anika had got a cake made for me that said "Happy Birthday Anna Teke Fumes". Ha! It was real good too. That was the other best party ever. Two in one weekend man. Probably didn't help my voice much which I lost about half of over the course of the week but it was worth it. It's kinda good when that happens coz then you really have to sing that shit at 150%. Got a day off tomorrow anyways so sweet as.

Oh yeah- thanks also to everyone who came out to the Auckland show at the Classic. It was such a good night. Did anyone try some of that Goldenvines wine they were giving out? Good stuff that. Hamilton and Thames too. So yep- we've had some good journeys and some good jams and that. Thanks to Johnny Barker, Tono and the finance company, Flip Grater and LA Mitchell for playing with us too. All real good independent artists doing choice music. Tautoko.

Off to Tauranga on Tues, Gisborne Wed, then down to Welly for Friday show at Mighty Mighty, Picton, Wanganui, Palmy, Taupo, Taranaki, Tongariro, finish. Faaaark. Choice. Time for a sleep.